We have a complex relationship with our neighboring black bears. We love to see them, whether it is a solo male spotted near a trail at Junction Creek, or a mother with cubs under an apple tree at the edge of town.
There’s a certain cachet in Colorado to sighting or being visited by a bear. We shoot photos and videos and share them enthusiastically, as if the animals bring something special to the witness, a gift or some sort of rare bruin blessing.
We love them even when they are mischievous, as in this note from Jonathan “Andy” Morrow of Forest Lakes, who sent photos earlier this year of a striking blond bear ambling through his property: “First he got into my Land Rover and muddied it up, and today ...he knocked over my smoker.
“No better place to live,” Morrow added, “even if they do intrude every now and then. Gotta love it!”
And so we do, because bears are smart, captivating and even funny, as in a Facebook post from the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office, complete with pictures of a substantial-sized bear wandering near the jail:
“(We) just can’t ‘bear’ crime. On July 4th a bear was spotted on our security cameras ... on the northwest side of our jail. A little added security to a gate outside of our jail doors never hurts!”
We love them, of course, right up until the moment when we don’t. This year, besides the usual overturned trash dumpsters and busted bird feeders, bears in search of food have trashed the interiors of cars, pushed open downstairs doors to ransack storage freezers and torn down fences to get at flocks of chickens.
Recently, Colorado Parks and Wildlife set traps for bears exhibiting aggressive behavior by breaking into homes in the Rafter J and Edgemont Ranch subdivisions. In other parts of the county, two bears, habituated to looking for food near residences, have been shot by homeowners for killing domestic animals, and two more have been euthanized.
Why? Because these beautiful, curious large omnivores, with their impressive combination of jaws and claws, can be quite dangerous.
We should be more mindful of our perceptions of bears, and of how those perceptions often put them at risk.
Take the above photo, for example. Is this a particularly contemplative specimen enjoying the view from a deck in Tween Lakes? Or is it simply a four-footed roving appetite determined to get hold of a hummingbird feeder, and capable of seriously injuring, or killing, any person who might get in the way?
Something in between, we bet. And an animal that deserves more efforts on our part to encourage it to rely on its natural sources for food.
Visit bearsmartdurango.org to learn how this can be accomplished.
